Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said Tuesday that residents of the Greater Tahiti River Terrace Mobile Home Park in Pacific Palisades face deep uncertainty about whether their communities will be rebuilt — a decision in their hands, “nearly closer to home,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said Tuesday.
Mobile home parks were initially excluded from federally funded debris removal programs, Hovas said in a statement. Residents “can now be sure that the government will clean up their property.”
The news comes weeks after murder for the owner of the Mobile Home Park and the residents of its 158 houses, except for the residents of one of them were destroyed in the Jan. 7 Palisade fire.
Tahitian terrace is an eclectic combination home. There are wealthy residents, including “Shark Tank” star and investor Barbara Corcoran. However, decades ago, there were also many fixed-income elderly people, and a group of young and middle-income families.
In a hillside park opposite Will Rogers State Beach, residents own their own homes but rent their land, which is controlled by rent. The park has long been owned by a small family-run company that has made little profit from the property.
The park owner said in a letter to residents on March 21 that the decision to remove the debris is the main factor in whether to rebuild the Tahitian terrace.
Mobile home park manager Ruthi Muñoz, who arrived on Tuesday, arrived on Times, did not comment on the news, saying she is still learning the details.
The second phase of the Federal Private Special Debris Cleanup is carried out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is available for free to qualified homeowners who opt-in. It follows the first phase, in which contractors of the U.S. environmental agency have canceled potentially dangerous household supplies such as pesticides, paint and lithium-iros batteries contrast and land battery formal land landfill.
Some types of multifamily housing have at least one unit with one owner (such as duplex or apartment) that qualifies for Army Phase 2 2 cleanup.
However, leased properties that are not usually eligible for profitable entities, which do not include units occupied by individual owners, such as apartment buildings and mobile home parks, are often not eligible.
Street sign melted at the Great Tahiti River Terrace Mobile Family Park on January 7.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which distributes funds and outlines the cleanup process, said owners of these commercial properties are expected to use their insurance and hire licensed contractors to remove debris.
However, the owners of these properties are allowed to apply for removal of Army debris and consider their eligibility on a case-by-case basis.
FEMA District 9 administrator Robert Fenton said the property owners must provide reasons for using federal funds in the cleaning work, including debris of the property pose a public health risk and that business owners may not be able to complete the garbage removal independently.
“After careful consideration, I agree with your assessment that Tahitian Terrace is a rare and excellent case,” Fenton wrote in a letter to Nancy Ward, director of the California Governor's Office. [Private Property Debris Removal] program. ”
According to Fenton's letter, on April 2, Los Angeles County officials requested that mobile home parks be included.
Although the EPA has eliminated potentially dangerous materials, “the direct threat to public health and safety remains due to the unique characteristics of the property.”
“The Army Army estimates that 50% of the locations on the property contain fragile asbestos,” he wrote.
He wrote that the mobile home lot “is on a steep, fire-damaged hillside overlooking the Pacific Coast Expressway” and was crossed by nearly 48,000 cars a day before the fire. He wrote: “Removing the full range of debris from the Greater Tahiti River terrace is necessary to eliminate the immediate threat to the health and safety of these commuters. ”
Fenton also lists why the park’s owner, Azul Pacifico Inc., has owned and operated Tahitian Terrace since 1960, whose main assets may be difficult to complete debris removal independently.
He sees their monthly income as a barrier. He wrote that the average total rental income for a business before firing is about $240,000 per month, excluding utilities and operating expenses, adding: “The terms of its lease agreement allow residents to withdraw from the lease under current conditions, which will limit their income.”
Additionally, Fenton noted that the owner’s insurance paid $1,000 for clearing catastrophic debris at $50,000.
Fenton wrote that Los Angeles City officials who supported the county’s requests believed that the Tahitian Terrace owned a rent-controlled plot and became a “important source of affordable housing for Pacific Palisades”.
“Based on the city’s assurance, I am confident that, including the Tahitian terrace in the PPDR program, will accelerate the reopening of its displaced parks and ensure that the community remains in this affordable residential enclave in an otherwise affordable area.”
The owner of the park wrote in a letter to residents in March: “Until back The debris removal process is over and our complete analysis of all variables is completed. ”
They added that if Tahitian terraces were rebuilt, the process “could take many years.”
Chris Russo, who closed the custody on a house on the Tahiti Terrace the day before the Palisades fire burned it, said she and other residents were confused by the park’s exclusion from federal cleaning and spent a lot of time calling and writing to government agencies that begged their lot.
“Without FEMA’s assistance, we have the ability to return to our destiny, which may financially not be able to bear the full burden of cleaning up,” she wrote to FEMA last month. “The situation is terrible and your decision will determine whether our community can be rebuilt or permanently removed from the Los Angeles landscape.”
Russo told Times on Tuesday that she was excited about the news, describing herself as a “squeaky wheel” that would not let the issue be forgotten.
“We're very organized because we all want to go back,” Russo said.
“We've been fighting all the time. It's exhausting. To get a little bit of victory – it's big news. … It feels hopeful because we've been in trouble and don't know what the future is.”
Horvath's western territories include Malibu and Palisades, who advocates the inclusion of nonprofits, churches, mobile home parks and commercial properties in federal debris removal programs.
In a statement Tuesday, she said the county also asked the Palisades Bowl (the adjacent mobile home park, about 170 homes) to be included, in addition to the Greater Tahiti River Terrace.
As of Tuesday, a spokesperson for her office said the county’s request has not been answered.
